30 



However, the amended legislation will be a new situation, and 

 any varieties protected under amended legislation, the case at 

 issue that you described would not pertain. 



Mr. DOOLEY. Did the administration consider, especially in light 

 of some of these court challenges, that perhaps we ought to provide 

 some direction or clarification for the courts on this? And, basically, 

 what we are saying is status quo there. And we are not saying any- 

 thing other than letting the courts basically make the determina- 

 tion. I just wondered what the internal discussion was on that. 



Mr. Clayton. Well, of course the Government did file an amicus 

 principally motivated by a desire just to have the issue settled. 



Mr. DOOLEY. So the administration did file a brief consistent 

 with what the seed company was, yet didn't choose to clarify that 

 in the legislation? That would be consistent with the brief that they 

 filed? 



Mr. CLAYTON. I think our view was that, in trying to put to- 

 gether a legislative package which would create the amendments 

 that were necessary to bring us into conformance with the revised 

 UPOV, we had to fashion a package that would bring everyone to 

 the table. And one of the issues which had to be dealt with was 

 the farmer's exemption issue. And through extensive consultations 

 with all interested parties it seemed to us that the only reasonable 

 way forward was to basically draw a line of demarcation, kind of 

 preamendment and postamendment of the Plant Variety Protection 

 Act. 



Mr. Dooley. I appreciate your comments. 



Mr. Sarpalius [assuming chair]. Any other questions? 



We have a vote going on. Let me go ahead and call up the next 

 panel if there is not any other questions on this panel. Thank you 

 very much. 



The next panel is Mr. Schmidt, Mr. Keeling, Mr. Strouts, and 

 Mr. Clemons. 



Mr. Schmidt. 



STATEMENT OF DIETRICH SCHMIDT, PRESIDENT, PETOSEED 

 CO., INC., ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN SEED TRADE ASSO- 

 CIATION 



Mr. Schmidt. Thank you very much. 



Good afternoon, my name is Dietrich Schmidt, president of the 

 American Seed Trade Association. I am also president of Petoseed 

 Company in California. We are specializing in vegetable seeds 

 worldwide. 



I would like to thank the distinguished chairman, of course, Mr. 

 Stenholm, for calling this hearing, and I also wanted to thank Mr. 

 Roberts, who just left, for his leadership. 



I would be remiss not to also recognize the distinguished chair- 

 man of the full committee, Mr. (Kika) de la Garza, for his contin- 

 ued support and willingness to move this important legislation for- 

 ward. 



I certainly want to thank this committee for giving us the oppor- 

 tunity and letting us present our testimony. 



I am very pleased to be here today to offer strong support for 

 H.R. 2927 on behalf of the entire membership of ASTA, which com- 

 prises approximately 750 seed companies, large and small, 



